Stratum.black
Cordaites — Cordaites
Cordaites — Jebulon, Wikimedia Commons, Public domain (US)

Plant

Cordaites

Early conifer relative

Cordaites is the Carboniferous gymnosperm tree with long strap-shaped, parallel-veined leaves up to a metre long, found at Mazon Creek and in coal-measure shales; it is a relative of the conifers. Leaf fragments are common and cheap; complete leaves and the Cordaianthus cones are scarcer. The parallel venation distinguishes it from fern and seed-fern foliage.

PhylumTracheophyta
ClassPinopsida
OrderCordaitales
FamilyCordaitaceae
GroupPlant
Rank (PBDB)genus· Paleobiology Database
AuthorUnger 1850· Paleobiology Database
Classification (PBDB)Spermatophyta › Pinopsida › Cordaitanthales › NO_FAMILY_SPECIFIED· Paleobiology Database
Range (PBDB)382–168 Ma· Paleobiology Database
PBDB occurrences620· Paleobiology Database

Photographs

Cordaites — Cordaites angulosostriatus (NHMUK PB V 1905)
Cordaites angulosostriatus (NHMUK PB V 1905) — © The Trustees of the Natural History Museum, London, Natural History Museum (London) Data Portal, CC BY 4.0

Age

Formations

Elsewhere

Cite this article

Stratum Study. "Cordaites" (Taxon). Stratum Study pack 2026.09, as of 2026-09-19. https://stratum.black/study/taxa/cordaites. Accessed 2026-09-20.

BibTeX · CSL-JSON

@misc{stratum-cordaites,
  title        = {Cordaites},
  author       = {{Stratum Study}},
  howpublished = {\url{https://stratum.black/study/taxa/cordaites}},
  year         = {2026},
  note         = {Taxon article, Stratum Study pack 2026.09, as of 2026-09-19; sources: stratum, pbdb, wikidata, commons, nhm. Accessed 2026-09-20.}
}

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